Note 719 — LETTER XXVI.

I have reason to think that the larvæ of some species of Hemerobius thus protect themselves by a net-like case of silken threads; at least I found one to-day (December 3d, 1816) inclosed in a case of this description concealed under the bark of a tree: and it is not very likely that it could be a cocoon, both because the inhabitant was not a pupa, which state, according to Reaumur, is assumed soon after the cocoon is fabricated (iii. 385); and because the same author describes the cocoons of these insects as perfectly spherical and of a very close texture (384); while this was oblong, and the net-work with rather wide meshes.